Method and apparatus for transmitting high bandwidth signals with low bandwidth transponders

1. A method for transmitting a plurality of elementary data streams to a plurality of receivers, comprising the steps of:

generating M data streams comprising K multiplexed elementary data streams in a first entity;

wirelessly transmitting a first subset of the M data streams to a first transmitter element;

wirelessly transmitting a second subset of the M data streams to a second transmitter element;

generating a first subset of N transmitter streams from the first subset of the M data streams in the first transmitter element by performing steps comprising:

multiplexing the first subset of the M data streams in the first transmitter element to generate a first single data stream; and

demultiplexing the first single data stream into a first subset of N transmitter streams in the first transmitter element;

generating a second subset of N transmitter streams from the second subset of the M data streams in the second transmitter element by performing steps comprising:

multiplexing the second subset of the M data streams in the second transmitter element to generate a second single data stream; and

demultiplexing the second single data stream into a second subset of N transmitter streams in the second transmitter element;

transmitting each of the first subset of N transmitter streams to the plurality of receivers using an associated one of first subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters;

transmitting each of the second subset of N transmitter streams to the plurality of receivers using an associated one of second subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters;

wherein a first subset of the M data streams are wirelessly transmitted via first communication path and a second subset of the M data streams are wirelessly transmitted via a second communication path spatially diverse from the first communication path.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of generating the M data streams comprises the steps of:

statistically multiplexing the K elementary data streams into a single intermediate data stream having a peak bit rate less than a sum of the peak bit rates of each of the K elementary data streams; and

generating the M data streams by demultiplexing the single intermediate data stream.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein;

the first transmitter element comprises a first satellite;

the second transmitter element comprises a second satellite spaced a distance from the first satellite;

a first subset of the M data streams is transmitted to the first satellite and the second subset of the remaining M data streams are transmitted to the second satellite.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein;

the first transmitter element comprises a first satellite;

the second transmitter element comprises a terrestrial transmitter spaced a distance from the first satellite;

a first subset of the M data streams is transmitted to the first satellite and the second subset of the remaining M data streams are transmitted to the terrestrial transmitter.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters each use a different, non-contiguous portion of a signal spectrum; and

the second subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters each use a different, non-contiguous portion of the signal spectrum.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

the method further comprises the steps of:

error correction encoding the single intermediate data stream; and

the M data streams are generated from the error correction encoded single intermediate data stream.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein a bit rate of the single intermediate data stream exceeds the bit rate of any of the first subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters and any of the second subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters, but does not exceed a combined bit rate of the first set of N broadcast sub-transmitters and the second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein:

each of the K multiplexed elementary data streams has an associated temporally varying bit rate BRD 1 (t), BRD 2 (t), . . . , BRD K (t);

the single intermediate data stream comprises a bit rate of

BRS

⁡

(

t

)

≥

∑

i

=

1

K

⁢

⁢

BRD

i

⁡

(

t

)

;

each of the first subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters has an associated maximum bit transmission rate of BRT 1 , . . . , BRT N′ ;

each of the second subset of N broadcast sub-transmitters has an associated maximum bit transmission rate of BRT N , . . . , BRT N″ ; and

N is selected such that

∑

i

=

1

N

-

1

⁢

⁢

BRT

i

<

BRS

⁡

(

t

)

≤

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

⁢

BRT

i

for all time t.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the different portions of the signal spectrum comprise guard bands in the signal spectrum.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the first set and second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters has a different bandwidth than the other of the first set and second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters.

11. An apparatus for transmitting a plurality of elementary data streams to a plurality of receivers, comprising:

a signal distributor, for generating M data streams comprising K multiplexed elementary data streams;

a first transmission element, having a first set of N broadcast sub-transmitters, the first transmission element for wirelessly receiving a first set of the M data streams from the signal distributor, for generating a first set of N broadcast sub-transmitter data streams from the received first set of M data streams, and transmitting the first set of N broadcast sub-transmitter data streams via an associated one of the first set of N broadcast sub-transmitters to the plurality of receivers;

a second transmission element, having a second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters, the second transmission element for wirelessly receiving a second set of the M data streams from the signal distributor, for generating a second set of N broadcast sub-transmitter data streams from the received second set of M data streams, and transmitting the second set of N broadcast sub-transmitter data streams via an associated one of the second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters to the plurality of receivers;

wherein the first transmission element generates the first set of N transmitter streams from the first set of M data streams by multiplexing the first set of M data streams to generate a first single data stream and demultiplexing the first single data stream into the first subset of N transmitter streams; and

wherein the second transmission element generates the second set of N transmitter streams from the second set of M data streams by multiplexing the second set of M data streams to generate a second single data stream and demultiplexing the second single data stream into the second set of N transmitter streams.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the signal distributor comprises:

a statistical multiplexer, for statistically multiplexing the K elementary data streams into a single intermediate data stream having a peak bit rate less than a sum of the peak bit rates of each of the K elementary data streams; and

a demultiplexer for generating the M data streams from the single intermediate data stream.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein:

the first transmitter element comprises a first satellite;

the second transmitter element comprises a second satellite;

the first subset of the M data streams is transmitted to the first satellite by a first subset of the plurality of uplink sub-transmitters and another subset of the second subset of the M data streams are transmitted to the second satellite by a second subset of the plurality of uplink subtransmitters.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein M=1 and N is an integer greater than or equal to two.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein N=1 and M is an integer greater than or equal to two.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein M=N and M and N are integers greater than one.

17. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein M≠N and M and N are integers greater than one.

18. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein a bit rate of the single intermediate data stream exceeds the bit rate of any of the first set of N broadcast sub-transmitters and any of the second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters, but does not exceed a combined bit rate of the N broadcast sub-transmitters and the N broadcast sub-transmitters.

19. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein:

each of the K multiplexed elementary data streams has an associated temporally varying bit rate BRD 1 (t), BRD 2 (t), . . . , BRD K (t);

the single intermediate data stream comprises a bit rate of

BRS

⁡

(

t

)

≥

∑

i

=

1

K

⁢

⁢

BRD

i

⁡

(

t

)

each of the first set of N broadcast sub-transmitters has an associated maximum bit transmission rate of BRT 1 , . . . , BRT N′ ;

each of the second set of N broadcast sub-transmitters has an associated maximum bit transmission rate of BRT 1 , . . . , BRT N″ ; and

N is selected such that

∑

i

=

1

N

-

1

⁢

⁢

BRT

i

<

BRS

⁡

(

t

)

≤

∑

i

=

1

N

⁢

⁢

BRT

i

for all time t.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein:

the first transmitter element comprises a first satellite;

the second transmitter element comprises a terrestrial transmitter spaced a distance from the first satellite; and

a first subset of the M data streams is transmitted to the first satellite and the second subset of the remaining M data streams are transmitted to the terrestrial transmitter.